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How NABS can support your mental wellbeing

With less than a month to go before our team of MIPAs join 100 other adlanders riding from London to Brighton in the Sea Change for Mental Health bike ride, NABS' Lorraine Jennings looks at why mental health is such a huge issue affecting our industry.

As the support organisation for the advertising and media industry, NABS is passionate about improving mental health at work. Our industry is fantastic – exciting, challenging, creative and fun - but it does come with its pressures: long hours and fierce deadlines to name just two.

We see first-hand what happens when people aren’t supported through any difficulties that they’re facing at work. Too many of our industry colleagues end up feeling drained, exhausted and even depressed. Their wellbeing suffers as a result, which makes it very difficult for them to do well at work or even enjoy their home lives.

When our colleagues suffer, our industry suffers too. Around 30% of our colleagues leave their jobs each year due to stress. At NABS, we believe that we should nurture and support talented people so that we can keep them with us.

There’s definitely hope. We can turn this situation around. We also see what happens when people’s mental health and wellbeing are supported and in a good state. Their lives are enjoyable and productive. Life is just so much better for people when their wellbeing is high.

At NABS, we see mental health as a really important part of wellbeing. Our latest research shows that many of our industry colleagues agree. A huge 94% of people we spoke to said that wellbeing is essential for a successful and fulfilling career.

We know that more and more people in our industry are checking in with their mental health. Really importantly, they’re taking action and reaching out for help when problems hit. Last year, we took nearly 3500 calls to our confidential Advice Line – that’s almost 30% more than in 2017. Most of our callers came to us for emotional support and workplace pressures are a huge theme.

What does this mean in practical terms? Well, our job is to take people away from distress and to help them thrive instead. We work hard to provide support for colleagues across the industry at all stages of their career. It’s not just about our fantastic Advice Line; we also have coaches, Masterclasses and evening talks to give people the tools to navigate challenges and make the most of opportunities.

You can come to us to learn about resilience and confidence; you can have one-to-one coaching to work through a specific career issue; and you can learn from senior leaders at one of our speed mentoring events. We’re all about confidence-building, community and empowerment. These all lead to better mental health.

All of our services are free and we’re really proud of that. It means that anybody can make use of them. This does also mean that we’re entirely reliant on donations to fund our work. That’s why we’re so grateful to the IPA’s brilliant team for saddling up and taking to their bikes to raise money for us. We’ll be cheering them on and using the money they raise to help improve lives across the industry. Please do get behind the IPA team and NABS – thank you for your support.

Follow the team's progress as as they ride from London to Brighton on Friday 7th June on Twitter @IPALearning #MIPA